Start-Up Success

If people think you're crazy for starting your business,
here are some excellent strategies for dealing with them:

Show you've done your homework. Do thorough market
research and develop a solid business plan. Then, when people
challenge your idea, you'll be in a position to respond with
confidence.

Find an angle skeptics can relate to. For Anne Abrams
and Cecilia Hugo, owners of the Bow Wow Meow Treatoria, a retail
store for dog and cat lovers in Seattle, the emotional support of
their parents was important. Although neither set could personally
identify with the market for upscale pet foods and products, they
were of a generation that could understand the concept of living
above the store--and that's where Abrams and Hugo made the
connection to win their parents' support. And though their
friends thought abandoning a PR business in favor of a specialty
store was crazy, most could at least relate to the store's
concept, because they had pets. Eventually, some of them even
invested in the store.

Expect some relationships to be damaged. Any new
business venture is risky, and an unusual one is even more so. You
may have friends who simply can't deal with the risk you're
taking. Sadly, Abrams and Hugo say they have friends who were so
uncomfortable with what they were doing, those relationships will
never be the same again.

Disassociate yourself from the naysayers. Keep yourself
pumped up by avoiding negative people who only drag you down.

Remember other successes that started out as crazy
ideas. Abrams and Hugo say their theme song is the old Gershwin
tune "They All Laughed." When people say they're
crazy, the partners invoke stories of other successful
entrepreneurs who were ridiculed. Says Abrams, "They all
laughed, and [now] we're laughing, too."